Embarking on what could be Los Angeles County’s most expensive infrastructure project, a divided county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to move forward with plans to tear down and replace troubled Men’s Central Jail and renovate a female detention center for at least $1.74 billion.

The board has not given the green light for construction crews to start demolishing the 50-year-old jail that holds about 19,000 inmates across from Union Station. The demolition costs were apparently not included in the construction estimates, meaning the final price tag will substantially exceed the $1.74 billion figure.

Rather, it voted 3-1, with one abstention, to begin negotiating contracts with private firms to design a Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility that would hold and treat inmates with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, as well as those considered medically fragile or requiring high security.

The majority also called for modernizing Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster to house women.

“Basically, this is what happened,” Yaroslavsky said in an interview. “This consultant came to us and said, ‘Here are your options: you can buy a Tesla, a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce or a Cadillac,’ and they recommended the Cadillac and we’re all supposed to feel good about ourselves because out of those vehicles, the Cadillac, was the cheapest.”

“But they didn’t talk about a Buick or a Pontiac or a Chevrolet or a Prius or any other thing,” he added. “They didn’t think outside the box.”

Yaroslavsky described the proposed jail plan as “the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the county, without a doubt, not even close,” but added the costs may go up even further. “(Vanir) told me $1.74 billion doesn’t factor in the cost of tearing down the old jail, tearing down its garage, and replacing the garage,” he said. “That’s interesting — where are all the staff at the jail going to park?”

Yaroslavsky tried but failed to persuade the rest of the board to wait a few months for District Attorney Jackie Lacey to look into shrinking the jail population by diverting the mentally ill — who make up a significant portion of inmates — to treatment facilities, which cost less to operate.

Supervisors Gloria Molina, Michael Antonovich and Don Knabe pointed out the county has spent 10 years debating what to do with Men’s Central Jail. Among other problems, the facility is under investigation by the FBI because of alleged abuses by deputies.

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“By moving forward with a new state-of-the-art detention facility, today’s action advances our efforts to protect public safety and avoids a class action lawsuit or a federal takeover such as the one confronted by the state,” Antonovich said.

County CEO Bill Fujioka said his office will try to figure out how the county would pay for the project. But Yaroslavsky thinks it will ultimately come out of the general fund, meaning the county and its taxpayers will borrow money through bonds, and have to pay interest costs on top of the stated price tag. Molina suggested the county could try to get some federal funds for treating the mentally ill through the Affordable Care Act.

Knabe hinted the board would try to lower the price tag, saying, “Today’s approval allows us to further refine design and physical plans, develop a detailed construction and operating budget.”

Assistant Sheriff for Custody Terri McDonald said the plumbing and electrical systems at Men’s Central Jail, built in 1963, are failing. Also, its outdated design does not give deputies a direct line of sight into cells, so they occasionally walk blindly into danger.

“Recently, we’ve had a series of very serious assaults on staff where inmates take advantage of the design by throwing bodily fluids on employees,” she said.

Overcrowding is another serious concern because AB 109, also known as realignment, diverted thousands of inmates from state prisons to local jails. Space is so scarce that some women serve only 10 percent, and some men 20 percent, of their sentences before being released to make room for incoming inmates.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said the “modernization of our jail system is nothing short of a mandate for both moral and legal reasons.” Nevertheless, he abstained from voting to advance the jail plan, saying it lacks a comprehensive diversion plan for the mentally ill and substance abusers.

Over the last several months, Lacey has been working with a task force called the Criminal Justice Mental Health Project to see whether successful diversion programs in Miami-Dade County, San Antonio and Memphis can be imported to Los Angeles.

“The Los Angeles County Jail has the largest mental health ward in the country,” she told the board. “The use of a jail as a surrogate mental health ward has resulted in extraordinarily high costs.”

“I have gone to Memphis where (diversion programs) have been in existence now for 10 years and seen that they are actually shutting down wings of their jail,” she said. “I have seen the future and I just thought you ought to be aware that, quite frankly, something very profound is going on.”